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Governments alert to danger of anti-Semitism: Marmur

Attacks on Jews and Judaism hiding behind ostensible commitment to science and the pursuit of human rights are particularly insidious.

A mohel prepares to circumcise an infant at an Orthodox Jewish synagogue in Germany. The German parliament passed a law in December affirming the legality of circumcision after a Cologne court had called the practice into question. (March 3, 2013) (Sean Gallup / GETTY IMAGES)

Reacting to my column of April 1, in which I expressed gratitude to what Sweden did for me in 1948, a reader wrote that “one takes one’s life into one’s hands by walking down the streets of Malmö in 2013 wearing a kippa.” (Malmö is Sweden’s third-largest city; kippa is a scull cap worn by some Jews.)

Not only in Malmö. On two separate visits to Stockholm, Sweden’s capital, in recent years I was warned not to wear this badge of Jewish identity in the street lest I be attacked. Not long ago, a Danish journalist wrote about his unease at being so adorned walking through a Copenhagen neighbourhood.

On the other hand, hundreds of Swedes, most of them non-Jews, each wearing a kippa, have demonstrated in solidarity with Malmö’s Jewish community protesting against the thugs who’re giving the city a bad name.

Similarly, the Task Force for International Co-operation on Holocaust Education, with more than 30 member countries, is the result of a 1998 imaginative initiative by the then Swedish prime minister Goran Persson in response to evidence that young people don’t know enough about Nazi atrocities.

But Jews have also told me that the incidents there are often blown out of proportion by foreign media and the steps their governments are taking to punish perpetrators and protect Jewish communities are effective. There’s nothing to suggest that my informants are in denial.

Nevertheless, reliable data indicate that anti-Semitism is on the increase. Last year there were at least 686 attacks on Jewish individuals and institutions in 34 countries, a growth of some 30 per cent from 2011. Though even Canada isn’t immune, other countries in addition to Scandinavia are very much more compromised.

Anti-Semitism, wherever and in whatever guise it may appear, is an unmitigated evil. But, unlike in the past, nowadays many governments are taking serious steps to contain it.

Thus, for example, following last year’s massacre by a Muslim terrorist in Toulouse in France — killing three children, a rabbi and three others — anti-Semitic violence was vigorously, and we hope effectively, condemned by the republic’s then president and his successor.

Attacks on Jews and Judaism hiding behind ostensible commitment to science and the pursuit of human rights are particularly insidious. The current efforts in Europe to ban ritual slaughter and circumcision are ominous manifestations.

Though this “new” anti-Semitism is said to be fuelled by Muslim hatred of Israel, a ban on ritual slaughter and, particularly, circumcision, would harm Muslims no less than Jews. If, indeed, efforts seeking to inhibit Jewish life in today’s Europe are inspired by Islamist extremists, it’s their own co-religionists who’ll be among the victims.

Identifying and condemning contemporary hatred of Jews, whether it reflects old stereotypes or in its new versions, we must also note that, though it’s prevalent in most countries and today often linked to militancy against the State of Israel, responsible governments in the free world have learned the tragic lessons of its devastating effect through the ages and are now trying to nip incidents in the bud.

Muslims must realize that they are no less vulnerable than Jews. Therefore, for their own self-protection they should openly join all who seek to eradicate this evil instead of allegedly fuelling it in Malmö and elsewhere.

Canada currently holds the chair of the advisory council of the above-mentioned International Task Force. In view of Canada’s commitment to multiculturalism and tolerance, we expect its representatives to vigorously exercise their leadership to help realize prime minister Persson’s noble vision.

Dow Marmur is rabbi emeritus at Toronto’s Holy Blossom Temple. His column appears every other week.

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